Join illustrator, Rich Davis, as he chronicles his creative journey over a year's time making his 10th children's book, Tiny, the Birthday Dog. Approved sketches are due, Nov. 1, 2011 and approved finished paintings are due, July 2012.

Monday, November 14, 2011

Beginning the tracings

The drawings I have made and sent to the editor at this point are "loose"...they need detail put in them and tightening up on my proportions and making hard and fast decisions about what exactly I will paint in each spread.
I start this process with the first spread which is the dedication, title page. If you go back and look at what I sent the editor, you will see that it is very generic of tiny and it's small...doesn't fill the space of that side of the spread very well.
And the other side of the spread where the dedication will go, has a very finished tight drawing...it was the only page in the whole set that was a finished tight drawing...the bird in the party hat.
When I went to work on the title page, I decided to show Tiny blowing a party blower with the bird, Pete, flying up off of Tiny's nose because he was startled. I decided to take Tiny's huge body and have it go into the gutter (center of the spread where 2 pages meet). This would allow me to keep the dedication side open for it's own picture. I felt Tiny needed a party hat and by the time I got the tracing like I wanted it with Tiny, the other side with the bird in the hat seemed like too much for the spread. I felt like the dedication side only needed a piece of ribbon streamer and some confetti...sort of like an "after thought". So I pulled the tight drawing of Pete and the party hat and drew a streamer. I will make the streamer smaller before I paint it.
Because I had departed from what I sent the editor, I emailed the spread to them to make sure it was alright with them. Better to find out now than have to redo later.
To date, I've not heard back from them yet on that spread.

So I move on to another drawing.
I'm choosing to work on a spread that seems close to making a tracing of it without very much work. I really want to get a painting under way at this point as a confidence builder. I'd like to say, "I"ve finished a painting on the Tiny book!". It's important not to get bogged down or "stuck" in the creative process...I need to keep it moving. Momentum is a big deal with a project this involved.
There is no background on the drawing I choose and the tracing does go quick....wooohoooo!

You can see I put a pencil on the drawing to give you a size comparison of how big the actual drawings are....12" wide by 9" tall. I also put the original sketch above the tracing. Now I can take the tracing...transfere it onto illustration board and start painting.